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“Intermission (Brought to you by Garfel Warfel Snick) concluding in 2… 1… And now for our first game after the break! This should be an easy one, since you guys all claim to know each other well.”
“Or are you just five people, tossed in a ship with each other and waiting impatiently to get out?”
-
“Yess! Halfway through!” Lance cheered once the cameras were turned away.
“He said this next game’s going to be embarrassing.” Pidge reminded them.
”Then let’s just remember to embarrass ourselves quickly and get it over with,” Hunk said. Pidge and Keith sighed in sync. Lance rolled his eyes and continued to celebrate. Allura patted Hunk on the back but said nothing. Hunk watched Allura’s gaze as she scanned the room, her eyes pausing on every sign of movement. The pulsing quintessence holders he guessed were powering the whiteboard, the motors of Bob’s chair, etcetera. Allura glanced over at the rainbow lights shimmering behind them and narrowed her eyes.
Except for Lance’s good cheer, the Paladins stared silently ahead like rocks for a full four dobashes. Hunk could see flashes of green backstage, but couldn’t hear Bob ordering the TV crew around.
Hunk folded his hands together and rested them on the table. He closed his eyes. Maybe I can relax for a bit, he thought, but his nerves danced behind his eyes and he had to open them.
Finally two lavender aliens ran up to the cameras. The crew flooded the room with light, and the aliens glanced over backstage and turned on the cameras. The Paladins quickly pretended to relax. Lance elbowed Pidge, who was staring straight ahead, and she stifled a yelp and glared over at him. Hunk pretended like his feet weren’t stuck and he was standing at any old place on the Castle. Keep your cool.
Bob flew into the room, making some quip about how fashionably late he was, and rotated precisely so the camera aliens had a good view of him talking to the Paladins.
Hunk didn’t feel like acting friendly for this guy, but there were cameras broadcasting to all over the universe, so he assumed a casual expression.
Bob grinned at the camera closest to him. “Intermission (Brought to you by Garfel Warfel Snick) concluding in 2… 1… So, Paladins, how are you feeling about your next game?”
“You’re making an awfully big deal about this.” Keith spoke for the first time since the previous game.
“He’s right! This is the game we’ve all been waiting for!” Bob swooped around in his hover chair. He pointed at the blackboard, which turned to several short clips of the Paladins. Most were set right after they arrived at the Castle. Keith yelling at Pidge, Shiro rolling his eyes at Lance, Hunk questioning Keith about his Galra heritage, Coran trying to keep the Paladins in check, Keith and Allura on the bridge staring moodily out at the sky.
Hunk snorted. If Bob was trying to prove some negative statements about the Paladins’ relationships, then he was going to have to get some less selective evidence.
It took a little longer for the other Paladins to start glancing at each other in worry. Hunk kept his eyes on Bob.
“This should be an easy one, since you Paladudes all claim to know each other well,” Bob was saying.
“Or are you just five people, tossed in a ship with each other and waiting impatiently to get out?” He playfully raised a short eyebrow. “So, viewers, who wants to know?”
“How is he talking to them?” Lance asked.
“He’s probably had something pre-planned with a few people, but taking into account that he can get footage of us from any time and any place, he could be literally asking random civilians about whatever-it-is,” Pidge said, barely moving her mouth.
Bob nodded as a few aliens called in, speaking in their respective languages. Hunk recognized snippets of Balmeran. He kept his mind on track, steering it away from memories of Shay’s soft voice.
“Time for me to explain the rules. I’m randomly choosing a Paladin, bringing them up to the stage, then taking three different interpretations of another Paladin’s character from three different fans of the Voltron Show. My randomly chosen Paladin will have to find the correct interpretation. If the Paladins don’t get any single one right, they fail.” Bob turned to the Paladins. “Sounds easy, huh?”
Something seemed off to Hunk, but he guessed it was just Bob’s overdramatic personality and apparent adoration for hurting the Paladins. Hunk unfolded and folded his hands on the table again, trying to look as innocent and unworthy-of-being-chosen as possible.
“Let’s welcome Pidge to the stage!” Pidge flew over and landed in the spotlight, arms flailing. She quickly stood up straight and glared at Bob.
“She will be finding the correct fan interpretation of… Shiro! You all remember Shiro, right?” Bob glanced at each of the Paladins in turn, from Keith to Allura. Each Paladin flinched as Bob’s gaze met theirs. Suddenly, images of Shiro flooded Hunk’s mind, like he was being forced to remember. How had he forgotten about Shiro for the short time they had been on Garfel Warfel Snick?
“Well, I do!” Bob continued. “He was like… well, I’m not going to make this easy for you! 2…1… Pidge, your timer starts now.”
Three images of Shiro were on the projection screen. One was a rare image of Shiro smirking and making finger guns at someone offscreen. It had a speech bubble Hunk wasn’t sure he wanted to translate. Another had a drawing of Shiro as a robot. The last one had Shiro drinking coffee, speaking to Allura about what seemed to be how hard to take care of the Paladins were. Hunk wanted to laugh it off, but felt a tinge of nervousness. Who actually knew if Shiro liked being their Space Dad or not? It wasn’t like he was constantly proud of them. More often than not, Hunk had annoyed him. Hunk shook his head to clear it. He glanced up. Bob was looking at him, despite offering his obnoxious commentary to Pidge. Hunk stared at the metal of the table. It was some sort of Balmeran crystal-stanium alloy, his wrist computer told him. Shay had joked about paranoid Balmerans wearing stanium-sheet metal hats.
It’s such a stupid idea, but I need to block Bob’s gaze from my head!
Hunk tried moving his feet. Obviously, nope. Kneeling down? No, his knees were only a few inches from the solid table.
So Hunk did a backbend and pretended he’d fallen over. As soon as he could no longer see the stage, his head cleared. Memories of a discussion he and Shiro had late at night joined the ones Bob had given him. Shiro complimenting him on something. Fighting alongside the other Paladins.
Hunk didn’t have any magic to resist temporary mind-wiping, but he concentrated as hard on these memories as he could while bent backwards. He was about to squeeze his eyes shut when a circular shape floated above him.
“Are you all right, Hunk? Pidge is done!” Bob said. Hunk got upright as quickly as possible.
“Uh, yes, the laws of gravity briefly malfunctioned. Nothing to worry about.” Hunk glanced over at his teammates. Lance and even Keith were comforting Pidge, who was alternating between glaring at the table and wiping her eyes.
“Who’s gonna go next? Everyone’s in suspense!” Bob flew in circles around a projected spinning wheel.
“What happened?” Hunk whispered to Allura.
“Bob says she got it wrong,” Allura whispered back.
Hunk whipped around to look at Bob, then felt odd and looked back towards Allura. “That’s totally wrong. She knows Shiro pretty well.”
“And they didn’t choose Keith or me, who have talked to Shiro at times when he does not feel obliged to act neutral on everything and supportive of everyone,” Allura said.
Hunk nodded. “And that footage Bob picked.”
“Exactly,” Allura said, then became quiet. The wheel was slowing down. The names became less blurry. And the pointer landed on “Lance / Allura.”
Allura groaned quietly as three images of her slid onto the big screen. One image had Allura saying “I beat Haggar in two ticks”, smirking annoyingly, and a lot of Galra bowing down to her. Another had a closeup of her looking over her bare shoulder in a seductive fashion. And the last one was of a ghostly Allura with a calm expression seemingly creating a galaxy out of magic.
The art was beautiful, but something about it disconnected from the emotional, brave, flawed, humanoid, Done™ girl next to him. Hunk felt a rush of protection for Allura, who, contrasted with these images, seemed closer to him than ever.
Lance looked up at the images. He glanced between them and Bob.
“I… I dunno, none of these seems exactly right… I guess I’ll say, the first one, because she taught me a lot of stuff about fighting.”
“Did you hear that?” Bob whipped around in his chair. “Following in Pidge’s footsteps, we’ve got another incorrect answer! And Lance sounded pretty unsure there, right? I thought he knew Allura!”
Lance looked like he was mouthing something — something that started with No, I — but Bob pushed Lance back to his block table and the cameras both zoomed into Bob’s face as he spun the wheel. Hunk noticed that to direct the camera aliens. Bob pushed buttons on his chair that presumably sent their headsets signals.
“And now, one of the fan favorites with another one of the fan favorites! Keith, Keith, the emo one, come over to the stage! Which one of these pictures of Lance is closest to what he’s actually like?”
“Lance never talked to me until yesterday,” Keith said, throwing his arms up.
“Not true!” Lance said. “I left the math to Pidge!”
“That was one time,” Keith said, looking at the screen. Images were popping up that could be summarized by “stupid Lance”, “sad Lance”, and “creepily flirtatious Lance.”
Hunk cringed. Allura covered her mouth next to him. Hunk thought he heard a giggle from Pidge. Lance’s comeback for Keith seemed to die on his tongue. Bob grinned. “Now that the cute bickering,”— he winked at the camera —“has stopped, I’m starting the timer. What do you think, Mulletman?”
“Don’t call me Mulletman,” Keith snapped.
“What a feisty fellow! I’m sure we’re going to have fun when we see interpretations of you.” Bob floated to Keith’s other side.
“That one,” Keith said, stab-pointing at the first picture.
“Stupid Lance? Well, of course!” Keith’s eyes widened. “…of course, you’re wrong! You wouldn’t think Lance was so stupid, would you?” The audience booed. Hunk could hear a few shouts of “Lance is depressed” and “Lance stans forever”, and he shuddered in his armor.
Hunk was so disturbed that he almost didn’t notice the wheel landing on “Hunk / Keith” and Bob looking positively malicious. He was suddenly on the stage, blinking at the blinding lights. To rest his eyes, he glanced at Bob.
“Take a look at these beauties!” Bob was saying, not obviously focused on Hunk. Three images were sliding into place. One was of Keith with a squarer chin than usual, a smirk that on Keith’s face looked scary, and finger guns for some reason. He was also making eye contact with the ‘camera’. The next one was of a very short Keith in high heels and a red dress, rolling his eyes and gesturing at something. The last image was of a smol, uwu, blushing Keith with his arms folded, and someone wearing a jacket was comforting him but happened to be blurred out. The audience cheered. Hunk knew he had to go along with this if they were gonna get out of there, but choosing one of these ridiculous options felt so wrong. And what if Keith were insulted? Hunk glanced at the timer, took a deep breath, tried to make the fact that he was rolling his eyes clear, and chose the cocky Keith.
“Yes, yes, I know, I’m wrong, I don’t know Keith at all, none of these choices are right, blah blah blah,” Hunk said loudly, and surprisingly, Bob’s smile dimmed.
Hunk was thinking oh, this actually could work, when Bob waved his hand and Hunk was lifted from the ground by some unseen forces. He flew across the room, landing at his table. The locks on his boot-cuffs clicked into place.
Hunk met Keith’s eyes for the first time in his life. Keith stared at him with a surprised expression before shrugging and nervously turning back around.
“What was that all about?” Allura whispered. “I do not think you were supposed to say that.”
“The Paladins don’t look too happy!” Bob exclaimed. He was talking loudly and showily, although his hands were pressing various buttons on his chair faster than before. “We’ve got one last pair to go before the game ends, because Princess Allura hasn’t taken a turn yet!”
“Excuse me!” Hunk yelled.
“What is it, Yellow Paladin?” Bob flew over to him.
“Why have you never shown us the right answer after we get it wrong? And what’s the punishment if we lose?”
“You’re right; I am being awfully vague! I can’t slip up and give you any hints to the right answer, now, can I?” Bob flew back to center stage. “Our last Paladins…”
“Bob is so awful,” Allura said, looking sympathetically at Hunk.
“Princess Allura! Pilot of the Blue Lion! Former pilot and commander of the Castle of Lions!” Bob called. Allura was transported next to him on stage. She smiled weakly for the cameras and somehow endured the glaring lights. Hunk made a mental note to study if her eyes were so shiny because of some sort of reflective properties. He could do that when he was able to work in Pidge’s lion again.
Allura stood with her hands folded, watching pictures of Hunk appear on the screen. Hunk examined the various interpretations of himself, detachedly interested more than anything. He wasn’t easily insulted.
There was a drawing of some blurred-out people, with Hunk standing doing nothing in the background. Lovely. A drawing of a cute uwu Hunk with a caption of “he’s so soft uwu <3 <3 sunshine boi”. Interesting. A drawing of Hunk sitting on a throne labeled “Throne of Power of the Universe” and for some reason he was wearing jeans. Or maybe his armor was jeans? Hunk decided it was his favorite. He may have loved the last one, but none of them adequately described him.
“I choose none of these,” Allura said. “They are all false. I know Hunk much better than one of these aspects that aren’t even correct.”
“You’re not allowed to say that,” Bob said. “So I say… you’re wrong.” Allura flew through the air, back to her table block. She steadied herself on the table and frowned.
“I thought that would work!”
“I think we just have to accept that Bob doesn’t think we’re real friends.” Hunk muttered out of the side of his mouth, rolling his eyes. Allura glanced at him, worried.
“Our answers being right or wrong don’t matter!” Keith yelled. The table shook as he hit it with his fist. “We like each other! If we didn’t like each other we would—“
“If you split up in your lions, you couldn’t form Voltron, and the universe wouldn’t be saved,” Bob said. “It’s not like you can choose that, can you?”
Hunk’s spirits at the Paladins’ resistance to Bob’s awful game started to fall. They were only defending each other because they wanted to get out of the game on their own. They were only friends because they were in the right place at the right time and got trapped together. When the universe was saved and the stress was over, what would they do? They’d drift apart, to people they connected with better, to people who they loved by choice.
Hunk was reeling from this revelation and didn’t notice how his chest hurt at the thought of moving away from his newfound family.